The Rising Storm

  “Now bless me!” he exclaimed. “How monstrous strange you should suggest her! I like her greatly and had serious thoughts of proposing to her before Isabella’s letter took me off to Spain. Do you think she’d have me?”

  “I’ve not a doubt of it. In her vague, lazy way she dotes upon you; and she is wise enough to recognise that marriages based only on passion are rarely lasting. My desperate need to attempt to heal the breach between us compelled me to remain in London until you arrived; but I have arranged with her to accompany me to Stillwaters as soon as I had seen you on your return. I have invited Charles, and with him there, for appearance’s sake I thought it proper to have another woman in the house; so she has most sweetly consented to play gooseberry. Now, there is naught to prevent your joining us, and what more ideal setting could you have in which to propose to her?”

  Roger shook his head. “I’ll think of it, but at present I can promise no more; the other matter is still too close to me. Tell me, though, of your Earl. On closer acquaintance does my lord St. Ermins come up to your first estimate of him?”

  “Lud, yes! He is a proper man, and I am certain that you will like him greatly. Yet whether to tie myself again I am still a little in doubt. Apart from Diego, who failed to rouse me and so hardly counted, I have been chaste all through the winter. Now summer is here again; the sap is rising both in the vines and in my gipsy veins, so I must soon make up my mind. It must either be marriage or another lover.”

  “Let it be marriage then. From all you have told me of St. Ermins he sounds the very husband for you; and like myself ’tis over-time you gave up racketing and settled down.”

  She turned her face up to his with a wicked smile. “Roger, I’ll make a bargain with you. If you’ll take Amanda I’ll take the Earl.”

  His eyes twinkled. “I am inclined to take you up on that.”

  “Do, Roger, do! And why waste a day longer of your precious youth than need be? I’ll give you till tomorrow morning but no more. We’ll strike our bargain then; or should you refuse I will still strike you as a horrid, ungrateful fellow from my life.”

  “ ’Tis morning now. It must be well after two o’clock. And since from this secret retreat of yours ’tis a plaguey long walk back to Arlington Street, I must beg of you a shakedown for the night.”

  “Dear, foolish Roger.” She put up a hand and stroked his cheek. “As though you would ever lack for a bed where I may be. But dost know that it is all of two years and a month since thou hast kissed me? Kissed me with more ardour than a brother, is what I have in mind.”

  Drawing back his encircling arm he looked down into her fair, smiling face with mingled delight and mirth. Then for the first time in many weeks he really laughed aloud.

  “Strap me, Georgina! But thou art incorrigible! Dost realise that thou hast just invited me to make love to thee tonight, and yet would have me get myself engaged to wed Amanda tomorrow?”

  She made a face at him. “ ’Twill be time enough for us to attempt to turn over new leaves when we are married. Come, sir! Am I to find that ’twas no more than an empty compliment, when half an hour back thou didst infer that my lips would always hold a magic for thee? If not, thou art monstrous ill-mannered to keep a lady waiting.”

  A Note on the Author

  DENNIS WHEATLEY

  Dennis Wheatley (1897–1977) was an English author whose prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world’s best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s.

  Wheatley was the eldest of three children, and his parents were the owners of Wheatley & Son of Mayfair, a wine business. He admitted to little aptitude for schooling, and was expelled from Dulwich College, London. In 1919 he assumed management of the family wine business but in 1931, after a decline in business due to the depression, he began writing.

  His first book, The Forbidden Territory, became a bestseller overnight, and since then his books have sold over 50 million copies worldwide. During the 1960s, his publishers sold one million copies of Wheatley titles per year, and his Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming’s James Bond stories.

  During the Second World War, Wheatley was a member of the London Controlling Section, which secretly coordinated strategic military deception and cover plans. His literary talents gained him employment with planning staffs for the War Office. He wrote numerous papers for the War Office, including suggestions for dealing with a German invasion of Britain.

  Dennis Wheatley died on 11th November 1977. During his life he wrote over 70 books and sold over 50 million copies.

  Discover books by Dennis Wheatleypublished by Bloomsbury Reader at

  www.bloomsbury.com/DennisWheatley

  Duke de Richleau

  The Forbidden Territory

  The Devil Rides Out

  The Golden Spaniard

  Three Inquisitive People

  Strange Conflict

  CodewordGolden Fleece

  The Second Seal

  The Prisoner in the Mask

  Vendetta in Spain

  Dangerous Inheritance

  Gateway to Hell

  Gregory Sallust

  Black August

  Contraband

  The Scarlet Impostor

  Faked Passports

  The Black Baroness

  V for Vengeance

  Come into My Parlour

  The Island Where Time Stands Still

  Traitors’ Gate

  They Used Dark Forces

  The White Witch of the South Seas

  Julian Day

  The Quest of Julian Day

  The Sword of Fate

  Bill for the Use of a Body

  Roger Brook

  The Launching of Roger Brook

  The Shadow of Tyburn Tree

  The Rising Storm

  The Man Who Killed the King

  The Dark Secret of Josephine

  The Rape of Venice

  The Sultan’s Daughter

  The Wanton Princess

  Evil in a Mask

  The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware

  The Irish Witch

  Desperate Measures

  Molly Fountain

  To the Devil a Daughter

  The Satanist

  Lost World

  They Found Atlantis

  Uncharted Seas

  The Man Who Missed the War

  Espionage

  Mayhem in Greece

  The Eunuch of Stamboul

  The Fabulous Valley

  The Strange Story of Linda Lee

  Such Power is Dangerous

  The Secret War

  Science Fiction

  Sixty Days to Live

  Star of Ill-Omen

  Black Magic

  The Haunting of Toby Jugg

  The KA of Gifford Hillary

  Unholy Crusade

  Short Stories

  Mediterranean Nights

  Gunmen, Gallants and Ghosts

  This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Reader

  Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

  First published in 1949 by Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.

  Copyright © 1949 Dennis Wheatley

  All rights reserved

  You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  The moral right of the author is asserted.

  eISBN: 9781448212903

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